sims harold lois 1961 japan

8/12/2019 Sims Harold Lois 1961 Japan

1/33

Chr i s t i anVolume 60

Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature Mark 16:15Kimberlin Heights, Tennessee Winter, 1961 No 1

TYPICAL JAPANESE BATHTUB.However, for those who are fortunate tolive in the large city a gas burner is ava ilable.

Jh is store used an unusual methodto advertise their OFURO (Bathtub) byplacing in it a foreign style mannequ in.

News And ViewsA1 Hammond, now located in Tokyo, hasbegun the publication of two magazines recently, one in Japanese edited by Stephenlijima, and the other called the Fa r EastChris tian Missionary edi ted by himself inEnglish. The latter has its office in theSakurayama Church building.Grace Elizabeth, fourth child and thirddaughter of Ju li us and Virginia Fleenor,A'as born in August.Ward Pat terson, former c lassmate ofthe Pattons a t Cincinnati Bible Seminary,spent about five weeks in Japan at theend of last year. During that time hetraveled extensively in southern Japan,toured Tokyo, and as fa r as 100 milesnorth of th e capital. He is on his way to

Melbourne, Austral ia where he is scheduled to study fo r a year. Th e Philippines,Hong Kong, Laos, and other Orientalcountries are included in the plans fo r hi sitinerary to Australia No one enjoyst ra ve l mo re or se es m or e than Ward .

Announcemen tI would like to inform our brethren

in America that The Church of ChristCunningham Mission, (otherwise known asth e Yotsuya Mission ), ha s nei th er s en tnor plans to send in the f ut ur e any Japane se n atio na l to represent us to th eb rethre n in America. (S ee fu lle r detailson page 4. )

Andrew Pa t t on

Kikuchi From Nokono ToArokowo

The Arakawa Church in Tokyo hasbeen the sickest church in the area forsome months. In November the pas tor left .The few members left there decided toask Titus Kikuchi, at present pastor of theNakano Church, to return fo r a secondministry with them. He was with themfrom the beginning when they met in thehome of one of th e members, and for 5years after the building was erected. Theyfelt that since he is well acquainted withthe people and also with that factory district and its problems he would be a moreeffective leader at this time than somenew p e r son

We missionar ie s had been makingvarious plans for a ttempt ing to revive thework, and several different possibilities fo rleadership in the work there were underconsideration. But we hadn t t hought aboutthe Kikuchis going. I suppose it was because we were thinking mainly of thematerial aspects and the commonnsensenotion that no one is going to voluntarilyt/'ke a step down or back. The NakanoChurch is bigger, better locat ed , has amuch better parsonage etc.

It must have been a difficult decisionfor Mr. and Mrs. Kikuchi, but on Nov.23 they came and told us they had decidedto resign at Nakano and go back toArakawa church . The reasons were mostlyintangiblefeeling of responsibili ty to thepeople there and the church he had helpedestablish etc .

The Nakano people were very shockedat the announcement of h is res igna ti on ,bu t many of them have expressed admiration fo r their dedication and unselfishnessin making this financial and prestige sacrifice fo r Christ and Hi s kingdom is caus -and they have joined in praying that hisministry there might be fruitful.

Harold Sims will serve as pastor atNakano until a Japanese preacher can befound. Haro ld Sims

The Wesley Walker family of Hokkaido recently passed through Tokyo ontheir way back to their work after spending eight mon ths in the United Stateson fur lough. Wes ley s mother was left incharge of t he ir work while they were onfurlough, bu t due to an accident she washospitalized and was unable to do much.Wesley himself has juist recuperated froma serious operation.Noel Ray Patton celebrated his fourth

bir thday on December 22.


2/33

TOKYO CHRISTIAN

THE TOKYO CHRISTIANPublished quarterly by th e Missionaries ofth e Churf>h of Christ Cunningham Mission.Tokyo, Japan, fo r t he information and inspiration of every Christian whose heart is open tothe call of Christ, and who is willing to helpin the supreme task of carrying ou t th e Great

Commission of Christ: Matthew 28:19, 20.Entered a s s ec ond class matter in e Knox-ville, Tcnn. , Post office under the act of March3, 1879.iSvo Year Subscripton 50 centsSubscription and Flaming Torch 1.00

MISSION STAFFMr. and Mrs. Stanley Buttray, 575 2-Chome,Kamiochiai, Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo, Japan. Forwarding agent: Mrs. Homer Anderson, R. D. 1,

MeadvUle. Pa.Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Pat ton, 27 Sakura-yama, Nakano-Ku, Tokyo, Japan. Forwudingagent: Mr. or Mis. ^ y Armstrong Rt. 3,Box 310, Piqua, Ohio.Mr. and Mrs. Harold Sims, 1-52 Arai Machi,Nakano-Eu, Tokyo, Japan. Forwarding agent:First Christian Church, Tokyo Mission, Box262, Chariottesville, Va.Packages fo r Japan should be sent direct by

parcel post to on e of th e missionar ies whoseaddresses ar e shown above. Consult your localpost office concerning mai ling rules and l imitations of size and weights.If you change your add res s p lea se not ifyH. L. Hamilton, Kimberlin Heights, Tennessee,giving both your old and your new address.If you make an offe ring of 1.00 or more you

are entitled to receive this paper if you sorequest. Churches or groups making an offering. of 10.00 or more may request a bundleof 10 copies fo r distribution.

Thanksgiving DayOn Thanksgiving day th e Buttray,Fleenor, Patton, Sims, Walker, Wells andComsto^ families (latter 2 are U. S.Navy and Air Force folks who are both now.^back^ in i:he States) met~ together atTMeÔTs house for the day. First wie wentover tcK&e church fo r a simple service ofsong prater and praise at which everyonepresent (including th e children) stood andtold something fo r which he was fhankfni.Then we went over to the house to eatthe traditional menu of turkey and dressing, all the trimmings and pie delidouslyprepared by the several wives. After eatingour full we sat around and talked and

lauded all aft ernoon . How wonderful tohave this kind of fellowship.On December 4 the SakurayamaChurch sponsored a Chr is tmas ca rol concert presented by an all-Japanese choirunder the direction of Ugo Nakada, a well-known Japanese musician, who has compiled a hymnal of his own.Stephen Mayfield, son of Mr. and Mrs.Guy Mayfield, missionaries to Canada, isnow in the Air Force and is stationed inFuchu Air Station just outside of Tokyo.We see him quite often.

CustomsThere are strange and unusual customsin every land. Some are native to t he landan d others have been adopted. But onething is certain no custom has been ableto stand against th e change of time, no teven our celebration of Christmas. SinceChristmas is more or less native to th eUnited States, the change has been slightbut sub tl e. Whil e in a completely foreignland such as Japan where it has beenadopted, the change is not one of subtlety,bu t rather to ta l ignorance to it s true mean-ing. To illustrate, an Amencan was travd-ing by t ra in from the city of Hiroshima inth e Southern part of Japan to Tokyo about

the 15th of December. With him was anolder Japanese man, and both of themwere engaged in looking out th e windowand viewing the beautiful landscape ofJapan Ti en suddenly the beauty andharmony of Japanese archi tecture wasabrupty broken. Fo r there standing outlike a sore thumb, stood a foreign-stylewhite church bui ld ing. Above th e frontdoor on a ladder was an attractive American woman decorating th e churc h withChristmas trimmings. They both had seenthe same thing at the same time, (butthey weren't the only ones) and turned tosay some thing about it , when some Japanese across th e a is le r emarked: even theAmericans are beginning to celebrateChristmas This remark clearly illustrateswhat the average Japanese knows aboutChr is tmas . Stanley Buttray

Brother A1 Hammond one of our missionaries here in Tokyo who ha s just recently returned from furlough in th eStates is publishing a new mission^magazine t it led, The Far East ChristianMissionary . This is th e fulfiltoent of ani de a whi ch he has ha d fo r s ome t im e. Thef ir st i ss ue is due out around the f i r s t ofMarch. So if anyone is interested in receiving t his first edi tion , p lease write to:A1 Hammond, 27 Sakurayama-machi,Nakano-Ku, Japan. I t is to be a quarterlymagaz ine. Mr. Hammond says this firstissue is chock full of thrilling and inspirational ar ticles by real live missionaries. Themissionaries contributing to this newmagazine ar e primarily those working inth e Far East countries. I suggest that youge t your order in immediately.Staidey Buttray

The But tr ay s h av e again come to thatphase of the miônary life which is calledfurlough, l ime has so rapidly passed bythat we ar e hardly ready for the occasion.However, it may be possible that we canbe ready by sometime in June, especiallyif the necessary travel fimds of 1,200.00are available a t tha t t ime. P l ea s e r emembe rus in these financial problems.Stanley Buttray

Last year I applied for a used housewhich was being sold at one of th e closedarmy camps, bu t unfortunately I didn'tr eceiv e it. However about a month agoanther opportunity arose and this time I

Page 2was successful. In the l at te r par t of February or early March 1 hope to get startedputting up a church build^ here at Kamiochiai using this torn down army house asa basis. This house is only about threeyears old and is still in excellent condition.Originally this 26 by 75 ft. duplexhouse cost th e army 17,000.00 dollars.Dismantled and delivered to my home wil lonly be 800.00 dollars. However, it willcost at l ea st ano ther 2,000.00 dollars torebuild. Please pray with us that God willu se thi s place and this new building to th eglory of hi s Name. And that it will be amighty influence in this part of Tokyo fo rGod, through th e saving of a multitude ofsouls . Stanley Buttray

Paula Nielsen, fifteen year old daughte r of th e Paul Nielsens living in Sendai,is presently staying with us here in Tokyowhile sh e , ha s chiropractic treatmets.These adjustments must continue fo r atleast s ix wee ks or more .Stanley Buttray

A Widow's Chr is tmasA few months ago we stood in need o fa Sunday School teacher at SakurayamaChurch. The church was too young to haveanyone capable of teaching th e children.After searching a while we found Mrs.Suzuki, a widow and member o f t he NakanoChurch, and asked he r to teach our Sunday

School children. Though she ha s ha d noprevious experience at teaching, sh e isvery faithful and applies herself diligentlyto prepar ing herself to teach th e children.She enjoys this work and th e childrenappreciate her efforts a nd respect he rhighly.

Mrs. Suzuki h as fo ur c hild ren of he rown three boys and a girl. Her husbanddied a few months ago after having beenbed fa st w it h tuberculosis f or s ev en years.The family is receiving a sma ll amoun tof financial help from the government, and,because she is a widow, her children'sschool tuition is mostly gra ti s. She takesin sewing to provide fo r th e re st of their-living. They are fortunate enough to owntheir own home in Tokyo, though it is avery humble one. The chi ld ren a re al l wdl-behaved and excellent in characterchildren of which any par en t c an be proud.To help hi s mother th e o ld es t s on has asmall job in th e day time and goes t o n ightschool

The Suzukis were in need of warmblankets, so th e Sakiurayama Church gavethem tw o fo r Chris tmas and ^ Eliltz ofKobe an d some of her fr iends in Arn i c agave them three more. On Cîstmas dayth e Suzukis were guests fo r d in ne r at aneighborhood restaurant, th e children'sfirst such experience. In addition theSakurayama Church gave th e family asm all gift of money. E ven though thesethings may no t help very much financially,it will help th is family to see that otherChristians do understand their h^dslupand are willing to help.

Ândrew Patton


3/33

*age 3i ranobe MeetingI From October 10-16 I went to Tanabe:ity in Wakayama prefecture (about ^0niles southwest of Tokyo) for a week ofpreaching, at the request of Vivian Lem-mon our sister missionary down there. Thepurpose was partly evangelistic, of covê,but also we sought to rally the Christiansand r es to res some of th e inact ive ones.This congregation was at one tê amongthe strongest and most promi^g of thechurches of Chris t in this land, bu t for thelast 3 years or so they have been beset bya preacher-in-woman-trouble scandal andthen other problems following, and theseworkings of the evil one have taken theirtoll in confusing and discoiuraging the faithful. In such a case al l of us are ready todo whatever we can to help.

The re su lt s of th e meeting were no tspectacular, but most of the_ people seemedto be encouraged. Some inactive folks started coming again, and the attitude andatmosphere in the services seemed to warmup a little more every night. So we hadreason to be thankful. The attendanceaveraged about 15 nightly, bu t that wasbetter t ha n they had been having on Sunday mornings.I personally was glad to get acquainted with the folks in tte church there andalso enjoyed very much the scenery. OnSat. night we had a meeting in one of thevillages in the nearby mountains wherethere is 1 Christian family. That contactwith a typical country family, and thescenery of the r ic e harvest on the way up

was worth the trip.One evening Miss Lemmon and Iwere invited by one of the Christians toa special sukiyaki dinner at the town'snewes t and best hotel. We at e in a second-floor room overlooking the bay, and theview of that calm sunset on th e se a withthe fishing boats returning home and theloaded ferry coming across from the resort area, and the green mountains in thebackground and the pine-covered islandsin the distance was a p ic tu re for th e

to Japan and privileged to preach the gospe l to this land and people.Harold Sims

for 21.40 so that they could go shoppingfor items to send to Japan. When th e chockarrived each of th e four classes in ourdepartment selected one person to be theirshopper. These four, along vdth one of theteachers and myself, went shopping oneSaturday afternoon. The shoppers knewahead of tim e that th ey h ad to s ave someof the money for postage and they did avery good job at budgeting thei r money.We le t them select all of the items to besent so that they would feel that it wastheir project entirely. As a result, theremay be some items in the package thatyou really don't need; however, we feelsure you will find some use for all of it.They did buy the paper and crayons youask^ for and then included such itemsas pencils, water colors, day, rubber balls,and combs. The scrapbook is also in thispackage; however, I'm afraid that it maybe a rather weak attempt at explainingour way of life to ê Japêse d^dren.

This package is being mailed to youtoday, and I hope that you have no troublein receiving it. If for some reason thereshould be an added expense fo r you, pleasele t me know and we will see that it is t aken care of immjediatdy.This has been a wonderful project forour department and I feel that each of thechildren benef ited f rom it . It astoundedmany of them to realize the distance thatyou live from us and that there are peoplein Japan who never heard of Christ.We pray that you will have a successful stay in Japan and that God will blessyou and those working with you.Sincere ly yours .Miss Barbara Williams, SuperintendentPrimary Department White Oak Christian Chur^Cincinnati, Ohio

TOKYO CHRISTIANthey had difficulty in thinking ofgift ideas.In these cases the modeling clay and someof the other things were just the answerto the problem.

One of the teachers in the -/Ur ForceDependents Schools in Tokyo Miss VetoaHeld of Hampton, Iowa) came with hercar and took me and 4 of the ladies out tothe hospital on Dec. 21. She also broughtcandy canes and other treats purchasedwith offerings of the English languageSunday school for our children, which sheteaches.

The children saw us come up thestreet and climbed into the windows towatch and greet us. We were ushered intothe small office where there was a smaUstove^the only heat in the building. Thenwe went on a brief tour of the rooms, andfound many children running on the coldfloors in their bare feet, and in one roama nurse was shaving the heads of thelittle boys in preparation for the NewYear. We were showed the Ohristoastree which had been set up in the dingylittle dining room. All of them were v ^happy that we had arrived with the mowelcome presents just the day before theirGhristmas party.The few remaining things from thebox were sent to other Sunday Schools to

use as prizes. .^Lojis Sims

A etterAfter this length of time, you haveprobably given up ever hearing again fromthe Primary Department of White^ OakChristian Church; however, the childrencertainly d idn t forge t you.They made a bulletin boardconcerningJapan, with your letter and the pictureof your family right in th e center. Theycollected pictures of Japanese people,buildings, and boats and placed them on the

board. We also spent much time in discussion of Japanese clothing, food, andcus toms

Al l o f th e children saved ta x stamps an dthen eagerly awaited their refund check

What We Did With The BoxWe appreciate very much the thought-fulness and work tha t the Primary Department teachers -and - pupils- put into theabove box which we received in goodshape just at the time of preparation for

Christmas. Some of the things were usedby our Sunday School children at Nakanoto make decorations for the d iu reh wallsand Christmas t ree. The pa int sets andboxes of crayons and balls were wrappedfor prizes to the Sunday School childrenwho had been present most of the Sundaysof th e year.

Then the ladies group at the churchhad been preparing gifts for a children'sT. B. hospital hear hmre. One of the ladiesin the Bible Class suggested we help thisparticular group because her own littleboy had spent a year there in 1958, andm'any of the children are poor as well aslonely. They had gotten a list of the agesof the 51 children an d had made tiieml it tl e bibs, mittennstyle wash cloths withfunny faces embroidered on them, and beanbags for the children in different agegroups, but there were some for whom

A Motter of ExpressionWe were sitting at the breakfast tableeating oatmeal and talking about whenBobby would join the other 3 in school.Bobby (5 ) has had the habit for thepast few months of describing his feelings,and desires with expressions such as, Mystomach says or my stomach doesn't wantto ; which, by the way, is a literal translation of an oriental figure that he doesn'tknow about. When his imaginative pictureof how school would be waxed too wildlycolorful and out of this world his older^sisters began to call hinTback to the facts.He then avowed that his stomach was thesource of his information.Sylvia then explained to him that hehad brains to think with and then said,why don't you use them? The blue eyestook it all in and then replied immediately,Because Idon t want to waste them. Thebattery might ru n down.Aren't many of us adults obsessed bythe same fear unexpressed?

Harold Sims

Miss Velma Weir, member of a Christian church in Oregon and now teacher inthe Tachikawa Air Base school near Toksro,visited the Pattons and tiie SafcurayamaChurch on December 12. During the Christmas holidays she visited the Mark Maxeysin Kyushu.


4/33

AnnouncementMiss Elo ise Cunningham an d some oft he preachers sympathetic to he r have recently begun the reorganization of theirgroup and ar e appealing to all of the

Churches of Christ in Tokyo to join them.Miss Cunningham is an Episcopalian whofancies herself to have i nher it ed t he workof the Church of Chri st Cunningham Mission Her group consists of a few disgruntle d preachers of some churches affiliatedwith that Mission. We have b een i nf ormedthat this group plans to send certain Japa ne se p re ac he rs and leaders from theirgroup to th e Un it ed S ta te s to r ai se f un dsto support their organization. Since i t hasbeen customary with them to use th e nameYotsuya Mission, the Jananese name bywhich the Church of Christ CunninghamMission has been known, brethren in America may mistake these emissar ies as having been sent to America as our representatives. We have no such plans for sendingany Japanese national to represent usamo ng t he b re th re n in America.

Andrew Pat ton

Christmas In JapanThere are many contradictions in thelife of t he J apanes e, not the least enter-esting of which is manifested in the wayth e people of this pagan l and cel eb ra teChr is tmas. A J apanese r ecent ly made aremark like this to a missionary: W eJapanese ar e beating you Christians at yourown game. We make more o f C hr istm asthan you do. The sad part of it all, however, is that, observance ha s become al

most as important in the eyes of th eJapanese as th e observance of th e NewYear s holidays, their actions during thisseason are almost as pagan, as worldly, andas far from the spirit of the gospel ofJesus Christ as the revolting ungodliness,idolatry, and drunkenness prac ticed bythem during th e New Yea r s season.In thi s la nd filled with ido ls a nd idolaters and where the Christian rel ig ion isso little known and pract iced we havelearned to rejo ice w hen ev en a semblanceof t he meaning of an observance with aChristian coloring is understooid. Therefore,we Jiave no reason to be violently criticalof the^bright tinsel, the gay Christmas lighting, the erection of Christmas trees, themilling crowds roam ing the streets onChristmas Eve ( those t ramping the s tree tsof Tokyo on Christmas Eve 1960 wereestimated at about 800,000), the buyingand giving of g if ts , and a number of otherharmless practices connected w ith th ecelebration of Chris tmas here. Perhapsnone of these things, however, will helppeople to appreciate God's gift to theworl d when His Son was born in Bethlehem .

But we are alarmed a t th e notoriousan d indecent actions committed here underthe name of a Chris tmas party. Businessoffices, for instance, have taken up theold American custom of throwing a Christmas par ty ( ca ll ed in Japanese bonenkai forget the year party) for their employeesand executives. Two weeks of nightly revel ry , when a lcohol f lows like water and

S tephen And rew PattonNew A rriv al

Andrew and Betty Patton announceth e bir th of th eir th ird son and four thchild, Stephen Andrew, born on January5. Bot h Bet ty and the baby are fine.

geishas, strip-teasers, an d the like arenearly as numerous as t he guest s, are usedto drown the memory of the past year.About th e o nly pe ople who look askance atsuch goi ng s on are the police who ar e di spleased tivat th ey have to arrest so manymor e d ru nk s than at an y o th er tim e of theyear. Hardly anyone seems to care aboutthe sh am e and inconsistency of a nudedancing among th e tables of a crowd ofChristmas party revelers, while she singsJingle Bells, White Christmas, orSilent Night.Another t yp ical way in which Chr is tmas is celebrated in Japan is illustrated bythe annual International Christmas Party.sponsored by the Tokyo YMCA to w hich Iwas invited by virtue of th e fact th^t Itaught a Bible c la ss t he re dur ing the pastyear. The party was a pure social affair a twhich the name of God or of His SonJesus Chr is t was not mentioned except inthe Scr ip tu re reading and prayer whichI was called on to give.About t en d iff er en t nations of peoplewere represented at the party and th emedium of speech was English, thoughthere was a t least one person there whocould not under st and that language. Theparty was very entertaining and th e occasion afforded one an exce llent opportunityto meet the officials of th e YMCA and

mingle with these rep resentat ives o f smany nat ions of people. Bu t I wonder iit would no t have been more fitting thave lef t th e word Chr i s tmas out of thtitle used fo r th e gathering.

The membe rs of a n Eng li sh conversstion class whi ch I h av e b ee n teach in g aYMCA wished to show me th e s pirit oChristmas in a different way. They inviteime to one of T okyo s many thriving coffeihouses, where we listened to the fineshi-fi Chr is tm as music while sipping a 2icent cup of coffee an d discussing curreneven t s

One of th e most del igh tfu l Chri stmagatherings we attended last year (1960was th e on e held w ith our Sunday Schoochildren on Christmas day. Reading of appropriate selections from th e Gospel narratives was interspersed w ith th e sin gin g oChr is tmas carols . T h e c hi ld re n themselve.demonstrated what they had learned aSunday School or at home by s in gin g ca ro lor playing ins truments . A blind girl played th e organ beaut iful ly and then sh e an;her sister sang a carol. Two boys playe(mouth organs and other youngsters sanisolos or p la yed t he organ. Then slides werishown to i l lustra te the Bibl ical account oour Lord s birth.

Thirty n ine chi ld re n were present anceve ryone seemed to enjoy th e programI wonder if innocent l i t t le children dcnot know how to enjoy and understancChristmas bet ter than adults at least ho se adu lt s who tr y to drown th e occassion in drink or the contaminated river ojungodly living. At least ou r fond hope ithat when t he se Sunday School childrerr ea ch ma tu ri ty they will remember whalthey are l ea rni ng from the Word of th (Lord .

An drew P attor

Mrs. Fujita PassesOne Nov. 14 a large funeral was heldin the Setagaya Church fo r Mrs. Fujita

(75 ) who was the widow of one of th ee ar li es t an d m o st f ai th fu l m in is te rs in th epre-war Yotsuya Mission and the founderof the Setagaya church, and also th e motherof Mrs. Hanyu, wife of t he p re sent minister. Since she became a widow more than20 years ago Mrs. Fujita s life has beencentered in that ch ur ch and i ts a ct iv it ie s,She has lived in a room ups ta ir s in thechurch building, b ee n p re se nt at al l meeti ng s and th e sympathetic ea r to al l troublesand problems of t he membe rship thoughth e war years th e pos t-war pover ty andth e rebuilding.

A t the funeral many different speakers spoke lovingly of her fea rl es s cont inuin g of church mee tings dur ing th e warwhen th e pastor was a soldier in China an dth e government constantly obstructed th ework and th e bombs fell often, her unselfish and thoughtful distribution of reliefclothes and food to t he needy in th e postwar days, her work fo r th e WCTU andother organizations. In th e old days theyused to call her k in d B ib le Wome n


5/33

Dear Friends

MAR 9 .1RP.1February 8 1961

It has been juat a few weeks since we sent a news-letter to be mimeographadand mailed out from Charlotteavilla,but there is now-gnme mhre.news that we feelmerits a special letter from Tokyo, On Sunday night Feb. ^ parents ofa.Jloy, our fifth child. We have named him ]^_niel Jerome and will callhim Danny. e wiaighed 8 pounds p ounces at birth, and boTh mother and baby are inthe poakôf health and happiness. V e are very thankful to od for His great andmultitudinous b les sin gs to us

The very important yearly meeting of Nakano Church is always on the firstSunday of February, and for a whilo v;e wore afraid i t might be interrupted for arun out to the hospital, but ho waited politely until after the business meetingwas over at p so we could put the work for Christ first All during thesemonths of traveling and readjusting to life in Japan he has been very cooperative.Since we have no Japanese preacher here at Nakano since mid-December I amacting as P-,'t'0.r^for^the present. We have an average attendance of about 20-25 at

the morning services and 4 or 5 in the evening every Sunday. For prayer meeting wealways havo ono faithful woman present, and often a zealous college student orsomeone else. In totaling up some facts for a report to the annual congregationalmeeti^ I discovered that in It years^since beginning services here there havo bean91 additions 4 transfers and 87 baptisms). Of this number only l6 are presentactive members here at Nakano.* Almost half of the remainder have not denied thefaith and are still loading Christian lives, but they havo moved so far away t iftimpossible for thorn to attend with any regularity Most of them are in some denom-imtional church in their neighborhood, but that is batter than nothing. Theothers, many of whom live closo around hero, are just disinterested, inactive, orgone away mad. V o have completely lost contact with more than-20, most of themgirls who are now married and have a different name, etc The statistics sounddiscouraging, but wo are far from hopeless. There are at least 4 or 5 non-Christians în the audience every Sunday, and some of them are interested and attending regularly.I was down on the island of Kyushu v;ith the Mark Maxoy family.One of the yearly activities of their Kyushu Christian Center is a 2 week intensiveBible study course for the purpose of training ordinary Christians for local churchleadership. The early part of January is a good time, because farmers and otherfolks havo a lot of^time off following the New Year s celebrations. I taught Romansfor 2 hours every night for 10 nights, and received a groat deal of personal benefitfrom the preparation for the class Only 4 people attended the full number ofnights and received certificates, but with delegations from three of the nearbychurches a total of -5.8 different people attended so-wo. hope t will be of realbenefit to the people who came arid the churches they serve.

During the time I was in Kyushu I also enjoyed the fellov/ship with the 5JapanosG preachers and 2 missionarios of the Churches of Christ in KagoohimaPrefecture at^their bi-monthly meeting where plans for evongelistic meotings, camp,monthly magazine, etc, woro^v/orkod out and coordinated and several thought-provokingmessages vêre heard. Also i spoke at the local orphanage, leper colony, and Rotarym l n n w fl 1 1 Q ff] O r^ v/-k A oClub as w all as 2 churches

Yours n His service

HAROLD SIMS

--i-


6/33

Dear Friends,Ou r last ncvjs-letter was mailed o ut in February shor tly a f t e r Dam^y-boywas born ow hs is 3 months old^ a lively d ef in it io n o f th e word wGll-fed ,apleasant l i t t le personality beginning to laugh, watch his brothers play, grow ou t

o f his baby clothes-a wonderful a dd it io n t o a ll o f our other blessings*After coming back home Lois remained upstairs for the r e s t of Februarytaking care of the baby and r ec ov er in g h er s tr en gt h* One of the Japanese womenin Lois' Bible Class awidow who just house-keeps for her 27 year old son) Kindlycame in to help with the house-work on most days, but because she was unacquaintedwith American cooking most of the kitchen chores became bqt lot* The situation wascomplicated by a series of l ight cases of Asian flu running down through the wholefamily except me* So during those days I was really busy and tired down by comestic

du t i e sThe rule in such cases is to make the most o f i t which I tried to do*The day we went to the hospital Lois had l e f t some sweeipotatoes in th e oven, andwhen I found them that night they were very well done^ bu t no t ruined. Whenvisiting Lois the next day I remarked that I planned to make a pie with them*This provided much merriemnt for Lois and her rooft-^mate^ because the bum of mydemonstrated culinary ability in 14 years of marriage h ^ been frying eg^s andalways breaking the yolks* Later the same evening I mentioned th e idea to Blirs*Buttray , and she tried to discourage me by saying that kind was too hard for abeginner, but after looking almost an hour I found th e cook-book smd started workon my f i r s t pie-crust* Ever so slowly, one thing a t a time, countless referencesto the book, and th e crust seemed to be 0,K, Then I found the recipe for thefi l l in g , and rcji into an unforseen problemI didn t have enough potatoes cooked,80 hod to hurriedly boil some more* Next I came to nutmeg* I almost turned thekitchen upside down, bu t couldn t find any, so sprinkled in a l i t t le black petter

needs some kind of seasoning) and weut on* The whole p ro ce ss t oo k about 4 hours,but the pi e looked perfectcracked a l i t t le around th e edge, you know(pause forsouthern readers to drool)* The following day Lois and her room-mate pronounced e x c e l l e n t f o r a beginner*

Encouraged, I decided to try a cake* First I got out about ^ doaen of ourChristmas-gift mixes and looked them over to se e which would be easiest to make*That was a snap* So in th is way we manjiged to have some kind of dessert everynight for th e 3 weeks I was in charg e, altho ug h the supply of puddings and mixest h a t Lois had so carefu lly stored was sorely depleted*Lois hasr had some trouble with high blood prosauro and o v er - ac t iv e t h yr o idglad since the baby came The blood pressure b^ improved some the last time wewent to the Dr* but she s t i l l has to take pi l l s an d vis i t the Dr* r a t h e r often*The f i r s t week in March was spent a t Xokohama Customs Houseno exaggeration*We ran up against a stone Wdl in e ffo rt s to bring ou r Ford Station Wagon intoJapan, because we had not owned i t a year* after many consultations with bothJapanese and American officials i t became clear t h at the only solution was to s e l li t to a U*S* serviceman, which is difficult enough, Eventually I worked ou t a tradewith ui airaian f r iend o f Mark B txeys* He gave me h is 1955 Chevrolet Wagon an d750 for my 1959 1 had to take a loss, bu t because of th e mounting storage b i l lfind th e l e g a l complications i t was a ref ief to get the matter settled, and wo nowhave a r e l i able car with th e J ap an es e i mp or t tu x p&id*


7/33

Tho second filonday i n ^ arch a t the Milcawnatmia church parsonage a prayermeeting of 5 Japanaaa ministara y nd wr.g hold as tho f i r s t movo i n anattempt to got a l l of t he m in is te rs i n the Tokyo area together i n a monthlyfellowship of p ray er, exchange of news and announcements and discussion of problems#The second meeting was held on April 10 a t the Sims house with 8 present, A o archopeful t h a t t h i s w i l l help to improve and heal some of the divisions t h a t havoa f f l i c t e d the work for the pas t several years.

One of tho very few young t t the Naktino church surprised us a l l hyannouncing his decision q u i t Universi ty tmd oator Osako i Jiblo Seminary to preparefor the ministry a t the f i r s t of April , He has been a groat help in the variousphases of tho work hore, and a l l of tho members hate to lose his zealous activity,but wc are thanlcful for his committment to Christ and pray that he may be over moref r u i t f u l and u s e f u l .

From March 28-31 tne annual convent ion of Japanese Christians and missionarieswas held in Osaka Hope and Sylvia accompanied me on this t r i p and we a l lenjoyed the fel lowship very much. More than 100 attended the meetings whichwere held at the Youth Hostel in a large park in the city, and a larger crowdwas present for the dedication of tho nice new building of Osaka Bible Seminarywiiich was the concluding sorvice.

More detai led repor ts of thcso news-items w i l l be found i n the Tokyo Christ ian.We hope you a l l are getting i t* I f not, p lease take time to drop a cord toMr. A, El. Sims 1312 Forrest Ave., High Point, H. G. and you will be added to themailing l st

From April 2-9 we held one week as special Bible s tudies each evening from7 - 8:30 a t Hakano church. I t i s hoped and plaiinod that this will be an annualovont t h a t w i l l strexigthea the C h r i s t i a n s f a i t h i n God's word and the habit ofrogular , understanding reading and also a means of i n t e r e s t i n g outsiders i n thoriches of tr uth th at arc in the VJord. This year's talks were givep by Jphn Mutoand were most interest ing and u p l i f t i n g . The attendance was smaller than wo hopedfor , but i t was consistent. The smallest crowd was 10 and the larges t 18. The 3people who came for the f i r s t time (in r^ssponao to 1500 hami-bills and signs in'f ront of tho church) havo continued to como to rogular services.

From April 12-22 I went down to Okayama prefecture where Pilr, and Mrs. BobHest arc engaged i n r u r a l evangelism, a ser ies of 1 and 2 night specia l evange li st icmeetings had been scheduled i n a number o f v il la go s and towns in th^jir area . I twas a vory enjoyable time f o r me because of the crowds t h a t came out to hear thehigh-nosed foreigner speak Japanese. He seldom get to preach to as many as lOOpeople in Tokyo, but a t one meeting thoro wore bettor than 250 and most of themwere oiily slightly acqutiintod with Christ and His good nowsl ^

Yours in His service,H a r o l d a n d L o i s S i m s


8/33

Tokyo Chr i s t i an o ye into all th e world and preach the gospel to every creature Mark 16:15

Volume 60

News ndViewsFounda ti o n fo r th e new Church buiM-in g at Kamiochlai was begun th e last weekin April. The man con tr ac ted to build th e

Church is a Christ ian carpenter and thefour young men that work for him areeither Christian or at l ea st a tt end ing churchsomewhere. They al l took part in a shor tdedication service before beg inning work.

A day for f in ish ing c anno t y et be setas th e rainy se ason will s oon be upon us ,but I h av e hopes that i t will be finishedby the 20th of June. If so, a two or threeweek evangel is ti c mee ti ng will mark thecompletion of the building. And I t ru s t t ha tit will l ight a Spiritual Fire that shall neverbe dimmed.

Pray with us tha t Go-J will workmightily, wonders to behold in these days.Our time fo r returning home dependson the complet ion of th e church building.And even at this momen t w e are still notsure just when that will be, bu t most l ikelyno t before the middle of July. After spending the first few weeks at home (Meadvil le ,

Penna.) , we will be available to v isit l iving-link churches as well as make otherappointments. We are especially desirous offinding other Churches w ho w ill becomeregular supporters. If you would like usto vis it you, p lease write to our forwardingagent Mr;. Homer Ander son, Rou te No. 1,Meadville, Pennsylvania, or direc tly to usat: 575 Kamiochlai Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo,Japan.

Stanley Buttray

Future Mlssionairies? Philip and NoelPat ton

Kimberl in Heigh ts , Tennessee Summer, 1961, No. 2 3

Akada To Osaka Seminary

kada

In th e fall of 1957 a High School student, son of a silk dyer in our neighborhood, began attending my Saturday evening English Bible Class. He was enrolled ina Catholic institution, an d ha d some knowledge of and interest in Chrstanty an d wasfull of quest ions about Pro tes tan ti sm etc.In th e s umme r o f 1958 he wa s one wh o wentwith us to Lake Motosu fo r young people scamp. After that he started attendingchurch f rom t ime to t ime.Before we went on furlough in 1959 Ispoke to him about becoming a Christian,but he said he could not yet believe. Wew ere m ade very happy when during ouryear i n Amer ic a we received a let ter fromthe preacher at Nakano i nforming us thathe had been baptised. When we re turned toJapan we fo un d h im one of th e mos t l oy almembers he re a t Nak ano church, an d it wa struly a remarkably cha nged pe rs on fromthe young man we had remembered from1 yea r earlier. He was deeply concernedabout the problems of th e local church, desiring and learning to pray, seeking opportunities to evangelize, attending massevangelism campaigns by Oswald Smith, azealous worker in th e C hr is tia n Studen tAssociation of th e Chuo University, teaching in t he Sunday School etc. We have beenth an kfu l fo r h im many times since w e returned to Japan 6 months ago.

Since he is in th e midst of t he regular4 year course at one of th e good Universities here we had not said anything to hiTn

about becoming a minister, so were happilysurpr ised when he suddenly said that hewanted to become a preacher. As he explained it to us there were three steps inhi s t hi nk ing and decision to dedicate hi slife to the gospel. The f ir st on e is connected with th e lact he . is now complet ing hi ssecond year in th e University. The f ir st twoyears ar e given to general and basic subjects such as l anguage, soc ia l studies etc.and the n beginning w ith th e third yeareach student begins to concen tra te on hi sma jo r s ub je ct or field. So during th e pastfew months he has been forced to give alot of thought to hi s field of endeavor andbeyond thatrto h is lif e s wor k and purpose.His fr iends had a lmos t all se t t l ed on t h i sproblem months or years ago, and werelooking forward to studying l aw, medicine,economics e tc . with jo y a nd v ig or and ambition to become specialists and famouspeoiple. But he found h imse lf i ncre as ing lyu n de c id e d an d r es tl es s. He c oul dn t hones tly feel any happiness or satisfaction forhimself in any of t he r egul ar professions,and d id not w ant to become a dr i f te r orwaste hi s education in something he did notr eal ly enjoy .

The second step was when th e thoughtstruck him that he could be a preacher.T he more h e th ough t of it th e stronger hefe l t tha t this w as God s will and call andthat his life would be best spent for thispurpose. The con templa tion of being aworker in God s vineyard was the one prospect t ha t b rought peace and joy to hisheart Also-the shortage of preachers an dsome of th e problems in th e church a tNakano had added to his compulsion.

I t was at this stage that he first mentioned h is th ough ts to me . I warned himabout th e unpopularity, low salary andother bad-side aspects of th e ministryin Japan and also about the p roblems connected with dropping ou t of th e UniversityBu t if after thinking everything over againhe was sure I would be very happy.

The t hir d s tep was talking th e wholeplan over with his parents. In many casesthis is th e hurdle tha t is never overcome.Hardly any parent in Japan is happy whena son enters th e ministry, an d especiallythe opposition would be intense to quittinguniversity. After a couple of weeks he go tth e courage to speak to hi s mother firstand then his father, and they were veryunders tanding. His mother visited o ur h omeand said that she would be happier thisway than if he were becoming either arightist, leftist or beatnik like a greatContinued next page


9/33

TOKYO CHRISTIAN

THE TOKYO CHRISTIANPublished qua rt er ly by th e Missionaries ofMie Churr^h o f Chri st Cunnin gh am Mission.Tokyo, Japan, fo r th e information and inspira-Iion of every Christian whose hear t i s o pe n to'Jie caU of Christ, and who is willing to helpIn th e supreme task of carrying out t he Great

( ommlssion of Christ: Matthew 28:19, 20.Entered as second class matter in ^e Knox-Vilie, Tenn., Post office under the act o f March.. 1879.I'wo-Year Subscripton 50 cents^ubscription and Flaming Torch 1.00

MISSION STAFFMr. an d Mrs. Stanley Butt ray, 575 2-Chome,l\::miochlai, Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo, Japan . For -

V .rding agent: Mrs. Homer Anderson, R. D. 1,N cadville. Pa.Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Pat ton, 27 Sakura-yama, Nakano-Ku, Tokyo, Japan. Forwardingigent: Mr. or Mrs. Ray Armstrong , Rt . 3,Box 310, Piqua, Ohio.Mr. and Mrs. Harold Sims, 1-52 Arai Machi,Nakano-Ku, Tokyo, Japan. Forwarding agent:First Chris tian Church, Tokyo Mission, Box262, Charlottesville, Va.

Packages for Japan should be sent direct byparcel post to one of the miss ionar ie s whoseaddresses ar e shown above. Consult your localpost office concerning mailing r ul es a nd l im itations of size an d weights.If you change your add res s p le as e not if yH. L. Hamilton, Kimberlin Heights, Tennessee,giving both your ol d and you r new address.If you make an offering of 1.00 or more youar e entitled to receive this paper if you so

request. Churches or groups making an o ff ering of 10.00 or more may request a bimdleof 10 copies fo r distribution.

} - -

Page 2

COW / V^

JStanley and Mabel Buttray put ti ng up a new sign t o adver ti se th e weekly meetings. Tliis is a temporary sign located where the entrance of the new Church bui ld ing

will be . Th e sign interpreted reads: Hear every Sunday th e greatest story ever told,about t he g re at es t life ever lived.

Cont inued f rom Fron t

Akada To Osaka Seminarymany young people ar e doing these daysin Japan So he interpreted the rare instance of pa ren ta l consen t as a no th er indication of God s will and providence.

The fourth step was taking th eentrance examination fo r Osaka B ib le S eminary which he passed O.K. Th e fifth stepwa s b re ak in g t he news to th e Nakanochurch. The church people were unanimously sorry to l os e h im, because he ha s becomea key figure in teaching Sunday School,printing the weekly bulletin, being at allservices, keepi ng a tt endance r ec ords etc.But they also expressed their admirationfor him and their prayers will go wi th him.

Thus f ar th ree students have enteredBible Sem in ar y f rom Nakano church. Thefirst one go t T. B. and had to quit schoolafter about 3 months. The other one a tt e nded Tokyo Bib le Seminary fo r 2 years an dthen quit and is now in the newspaperbusiness. We hope and pray that Akada-san will go al l th e way as a faithful preacher of the word, and m'e humanly confidentt h a t he wi l l

H arold S im s

We wish to thank each one who havea lr eady s ent in gifts for our return to th eStates. Your r ea dy response to share in ourt ra ve l e xp en se is a real blessing. We arestil l in need of nine hundred d olla rs fo rour return fare, bu t trust that God willsupply our every need.

Recent visitors here have been mynephew, Jeff Buttray and our forwardingagents s on D av id Anderson. Both are basednear Seoul, Korea. Stanley Buttray

Th e following excerpts ar e from co nversations that I have had w ith some ofth e young people whom I have taught .

One da y a young student came to measking, what to do to b ec ome a Christian.You can imagine my feeling as I begantelling how happy I was to do so, when hesaid quickly, O h no , not fo r me. I have afriend who is very i ll and th e doctor saysthat he will di e unless he has hope. If hebecomes a Chris tian he will have hope.

Another said: How I envy th e fa it h o fyou Amer ic an s. We have nothing like it ,I am empty.Coming from class one evening a youngman made this statement, I was readingth e Bible yes te rd ay and f ound th is ver se ,M an s ha ll not live by bread alone . I wa sso glad to read t hi s for I have heard i t fromchildhood bu t neve r knew i t was in th eBib leOne student said, I am studying law.Please teach me about Moses and the T enCommandments for I have heard t h a tmany of our laws come from the T en Commandmen t s

Sometimes their statem ents bringssorrow to our h ea rt s, such a s th is : I knowChristianity is th e only way and I understand, but my family is Buddhist, verys tr ong Buddh is t a nd because I am th e oldes t son, I must carry on the t radi tion andcustom of my family. I t is my duty.

Another who is Christian said, F orsome time I had been praying for God toreveal his wil l fo r me and I was reading in


10/33


11/33

TOKYO CHRISTIAN

1Attendants at an evangelistic meeting held at Sakurayama Church in April.

Children 's WorkAt SakuroyamoAmong the c on ve rt s to C hri st ia nit y inJapan today many confess that they attended Sunday School when they werechildren. This a living illustration of th e

Scripture, Train up a child in th e way heshould go , and even when he is old hewill not d ep art from it. (Prov. 22:6)Those in Japan who embrace the Christian faith after reaching adulthood ar e few.Th e course of their lives is already set, andthey have settled down in th e ungodlyworld, without God and any desire to knowHis will. Strangely, though, these samepeople o ft en d es ir e fo r their children toattend a Chris tian S unday School to learnthe valuable e th ical principles which theybel ieve wil l be helpful to their children,e sp ec ia ll y in later years. They are notinterested in Christianity but morality. Thisaffords practically th e only opportunity wehave of contacting those fami lies fo r theLord Jesus Chri st . Whi le teaching thechildren in ou r Sunday Schools t he moralprinciples of th e Christian religion weimpress on t hese young minds the necessity of a vital connection with th e SaviorJesus Ch ris t. So th es e parents are gettingmore than they sought.The classes at the S aku raya ma SundaySchool are now divided into two groups.Primary and Junior. As teachers areprovided we hope to s ta rt a class for HighSchool students. Through the past year wehave surveyed the Old Testament and arepresent ly s tudying th e Life of Christ. Atpresent there are f ou r h elp ers in the schooland they are trying to prep are themselvesbetter fo r this work. The a tt en da nc e hasgradually grown and now numbers twentyeight in enrollment about two thirds ofwhich attend regularly.On the emperor s birthday April 29e took the Sunday School children and

ou r family on a picnic. We visited a parkand zoo l oc at ed on the outskirts of Tokyo.At that time the t ea ch er s u si ng f la nn el -graph, t au gh t t he c hil dr en a l es son f romthe B ib le . Many others gathered to seethis strange sight. Even on the picnic wewere able to testify fo r God to those whodid not know Him. Another strange sightfor the people whom we saw at the parkwas our little Steven, then three monthsold. They were amazed at the little whitebaby who was so big and fa t. Some w om eninsisted on holding him hile they didthat we distributed tracts to those whohad gathered to see the attractionPlans are now b ei ng mad e fo r a weekof Daily Vacation Bible School in July

at Sakurayama Church. Teachers who willbe free to help dur ing the week are beingenlisted and teaching materi als are beingchosen. We hope to have a good enrollment an d that th e children will learn somevaluable lessons dur ing the week. Throughthe Sunday School we hope to train up thehiture church. Such a chu rch should knowthe Bible and be able to withstand the fierydarts of the evil one.

^Andrew Pat ton

1961 onvent ionThis y ea r th e an nual al l- Japan conven

t ion of the memb ers o f churches of Christwas held in Osaka f ro m M ar ch 28-31. TheJapanese part w as h el d in a nice, new an dlow-priced You th Hotel in a p ar k n ea r th eedge of town. It began on Tuesday afternoon an d co ntinu ed through Thursdaymorning; and everything was planned,paid- fo r and carried out by th e Japanesebrethren. The a tt en danc e was over 100with about 25 from Tokyo present.During th e convention a very important and l ively d iscuss ion vital ly affectingth e future of ou r churches in Japan wascontinued through most of Wednesday.Three of the preachers are spearheading a

Page 4movement to form a C hurch of ChristAlliance. I t turned out tha t their ideasare no t too definite an d were not verywell-received, but we fear this is a drift toward Disciple-type denominationalism. Wewer e g ra ti fi ed to n otic e some discernmentand s tr ong convictions against such a thingamong some of t he J apanes e p reache rs .After th e Thursday morning sessionth e whole group went by chartered bus toth e dedication ceremony f or th e new OsakaBible Seminary class-room building. Th ebuilding is very solid, practical and finelookinga credit to our missionaries inthat area. There was a large crowd present, and messages were brought by GraceMadden Bra ley, Mark Maxey Bro. Sugano(a 76 year old e ld er lo ng associated withOsaka Mi ss ion) .Thursday night and all day Friday themissionaries me t together fo r fellowshipsermons and discussions, and as usual weall profited by that. Everybody returnedhome on Saturday pleasantly fatigued.

a ro ld S im s

News BitsOn February 5 1961 Haro ld and Lois

Sims bec ame t he happy parents of a finebaby boy (third son an d fifth child). Hi sname is Danie l J erome, and he will becalled Danny. At this wri ti ng both mothe ran d baby are getting along fine an d Haroldis gaining some cooking experience.

A summer camp to be held on August14-21 is being planned for th e Tokyochurches. The camp site will be on th eshores of Lake Motosu at the foot of Mt.Fuji.

The much-heralded Tokyo ChristianCr us ad e led by Bob Pie rc e of Wo rl d VisionInc. has begun. Their organization andpublicity are amazing; t he ir music excell en t. The preaching is nothing spectacularand l ike so much of modern day preachingwhat is omitted of th e gospel in the messages adulterates it . Of th e 8 000 personswho attended t he f ir st n ight of th e Crusadehundreds f locked to the fro nt when theinvitation was g iven . Then t he y w er e turned over to counsellors. I w onder howmany of these were given th e apostolicanswer to th e question, What must I doto be saved? One ca n only inquire alsohow many among th e crowd who wentfo rward we re s ince re seeke rs and knewwhat they were doing? O r were they justoverwhelmed by t he la rge crowd and theexcitement of the moment? Ou r experiencetells us that a Japanese general ly does notknow what he is doing if he accepts theLord a fter he aring only one s ermonTony and Shirley Toledo of Seattle,Washington spent a n ig ht w ith t he Fattensin March. They were returning from avisit to Tony s chi ldhood home in the Philip,p ines where they were able to establish anew church. The new church already numbers about thirty in members. The Toledoswere able to obtain a p reache r for the workwho can speak th e local dialect and theywill support him until the church is self-supporting. That has already been a verycommendable missionary endeavor.


12/33

JUL11136July 10,1961

Dear Friends,We have been very negligent about letter-writing, and no doubt some of you arebeginning to wonder how we are getting along. The answer is fineeverybody and 5.neveiy way. But we have been rather busy bringing forward some of our co-workars onthwir journeys, which is one of the con^ênsations of living in crowded, noisy, misty,mu =^y i'okjô. Since May 20 there have only been 7 nights that we have not had at least1 gv^st here in our home, and the record was broken on Sui^day night June 11 when we

had 1^ gues t s .Mr. S. M. Chang, pastor of our Church of Christ in Pusan, Korea arrived on May20 and was with us for 17 days. I met him, and visited the church in his house,when I spent 6 weeks in Korea in 1958, and since that time he has been trying to geta vl.sa to enter Japan. He is a very able, responsible and consecrated young vdiound^srs'tands Japanese language and is very interest in books of all kinds. He isprerident of the Pusan Christian Cultural Society, and has a lot of influence in hisccmiunity. His purpose on this trip was to visit our churches hero and pronrote

cultural ^ d religious associations between the two countriss, but the rexations between iic^ and Japan have been so poor that his visa was denied until th is spring.Altogether he spent about 50 days in Japan, visiting most of our churches ftomKyushu to Tokyo and writing an article a day for the Pusan Newspapers about Japan.Of cc'Jirse the coup de etat happened while he was in Japian, so he was a l t t l concerned about that aiid an avid reader of the newspapers while here. Having wide interests he was on the go every day in Tokyo, visiting churches, colleges, bcck-stores,Christian writers, novelists and other people. We enjoyed having him.The last week of May Mark Maxey made his annual trip to Tokyo and took in partof the International Rotary Convention and one night of the Tokyo Christian Crusade.This latter meeting was sponsored by World Vision Inc. and was the most extensive,e^qjansive and expensive Christian meeting ever held in Tokyo. The music was wonderful, and there were good crowds an during the tiu>nth-long meeting in the city gymnasium. Decisions were made in the Billy Graham fashion. There was a lot ofcriticism on the part of some of the Christians in Japan (American dominated, toomuch of a show, etc. but the secular press gave t some notice. We put up postersin Nakano church announcing t and attended 4 or 5 times ourselves, but did not actively support t by serving on committees etc.Also during this same week in May Martin Clark and his wife were up for 2 daysseeing their future daughter-in-law off to the U.S.Immediately following the above-mentioned Christian Crusade we had a week of

evangelistic meetings at Nakano church from June 4-11, thinking that while therewas a climate of publicity for Christianity in the city and perhaps some interestgenerated in the hearts of people in this community we would make a reil Effort tocontact them. We printed 8000 sheets of advertisement for the meeting* Most ofthem were put into newspapers and delivered to homes in the area (tjîs costs about1,00 per 1000 copies and is a good way of reaching the homes and having them read).The rest were passed out on the street corner before church time.The weather was very good for this season. Stephen lijima of the Minato churchwas the evangelist and brought good messages every night. But we were disappointedin the attendance. The highest was 25 and the lowest 13 (not counting me and thepreacher). We orO.y got the names of 5 new people who had never been before. However the church people cooperated very well, and several people attended every night

including a couple of non-Christieins who have bee me very good prospects.


13/33

B d 9 xc Sa S xoiT e asked ou r good Arieod Lydia Shigenobix from the Radioup lead the singing special oiusic tot th e iseetings and also to conduct achildren s oeeting Aroni 6s30 to 7s30 before th e meetings every night The latterHas a new experiment and very successful The Sunday the meeting began we o c ^12 children in Sunday School* That night we had 20 for the first chiliêâ^^d^

^nd the attendance increased every night to a high of 46* So oiJ^1Sthây^-Soho^ itt* >endance since th e m atin g has been double the previous average*OnSat night June 10 I went to the airport to meet the Seggelke family on th eway home fôm Korea They stayed with us 3 days Then the n ig ht b ef or e they lef tthe Bernel G ette rs a rr iv ed on the way back to th e U^S* from India That was th enight when we had 22 people sleeping in the house and church oh a ll beds and somefloors* For breakfast there were not enough plates and eutlery^ so we had 3 sittingsand then went to ISei^ park and a te on paper plates f or lunch*Later on in the month the Harold T ay lo r f am il y stopped by briefly on t h ei r wayback to Korea and then the Earnest Faber family arrived from the States and stayedwith us 4 days while clearing their baggage ahd arranging for i t to be transshipped ;

to Hokkaido a s t hey begin thei r second term*Regular services at Nakano ehurch and other classes etc* were maintained whilethe coDgmmy was here, o f course Plans are going ahead fo r camp this summer*We a re now in th e midst o f th e depressing r a i n s that come a t th is s e as o n e v er yyear I t ha s been raining steadily day and night for a week and everything is soaked

and moldyTh e financial report for the f i rs t h a lf o f t h i s year i s enclosed*f o r o ur every remembrance o f yo u en d they a re o fte n an d sweet We t ha nk G od

Balance on Bferch 17 , 1961S a l e o f G a rEvangelistic BSeeting in OkayamaSale of Books including some Lifeo f C hr i s t V i s u a l i s e d t h a t I l e f t a tbook s t o r e before going to Americain 1959)Repayment of l oan t o Japanese

pr e a c he rFrom g u e s t p r e a c h i n g i j i J* churchT o t a l

Yours in Hi s Service^H a r o l d S i m s

47

5 K)*0069*44

66*672 7 * 7 8

4 . 1 7716*53

D l a b u r a e w a n t sAutomobile, gas an d r e p a i r sOther travel including tr ips toOsaka convention and Okayama f o rmeeting)Postage an d long distance cal l sHelp f o r 3 B i b l e Sem s t u d e n t sPay to Japanese evangel i st f o r

meetingA d v e r t i s i n g f o r MeetingHelp f o r w r i t i n g Japanese le t te r sHelp with r e p a i r s on Minato churchb u i l d i n gMMikawashima Youth CampPurchase o f b o o k sSunday school s u p p l i e sHouse repa i rTokyo C h r is t ia n p r in t in g

T o t a lBalance

124.83

61. 193 18

140.554 2 . 2 213*3815 3933 3369. 446 . 1 16 . 0 0

2 943. 34

588.86


14/33

I l a r r o l o ; c ? a r l a n dBox 963J o l i e tf I ll in o is

'Go ye into all th e world and p reach the gospel to every creature Mark 16:15V o l u m e 60 Eimberlin Heights , Tennessee Fall 1961, No . 4

Ladies Bible Class CampThe Sims family spent a month thissummer at a cottage in th e mountains ofcentral Japan which they rented from th eFleenor family who are now on furlough.

While there we had some of the ladiesfrom Lois' B ib le class come up for a 3 dayvisit an d a kind of cam p. The accompanyin g picture shows th e 6 Japanese ladieswho attended an d the son of on e of themas well as Hope , Lois and Danny Sims.Korean Camp

One of th e most prosperous churchesconnected with our work in Tokyo is th echurch at Mikawashima. I ts members andminister are Korean and i ts history reachesb ac k b ef o re W o r l d W a r I I .This church planned a three d ay c am pt hi s y ea r at Lake Kawaguchi near Mt. Fuji.The camp was held on July 24-26. withover f or ty per sons in attendance. Haroldoima aim 3tt idrew-Pattcm--mjre i ii vi te d t opart ic ipa te in th e activities and the Pattonfamily went along for the vacation. Afterthe 3y2 hour t ra in trip to Lake Kawaguchi,we c ro ss ed ' t h e L ak e to t he h ote l w he re wewere to stay in a large motor boat . Quartersfor al l campers ex cept th e missionarieswere reserved mon th s a he ad of t h e t imein a smal l hotel , which provided three mealsa day and lodging fo r a very reasonableprice, a little over a dollar a day perperson. We missionaries stayed in a nearbyhotel. Both hotels faced t h e beaut i fu l l a k ean d gave a wonder fu l v iew of Mt. Fuji.A greater percentage of the total timespent i n t hi s c amp was devo ted to teaching,preaching an d discussions than most of th ecamps we h av e a tt en ded.Th e camp day began with a worshipservice by th e lakeside early in the morning. Classes began soon after breakfastand cont inued a lmos t to noon. Some classperiods were 90 minutes long. Recreationtime was in th e afternoon only and pract-

Showa Dori C h u r c hBuilding DedicatedOn th e ho t Sunday afternoon of July16 there wa s a good number of visitorsfo r a simple program dedica t ing the newchurch building at No. 553 Kami-ochiai 2chome Shi n Juku- ku Tokyo to th e preaching of th e gospel of Christ There werede legat ions f rom 6 nearby Japanese Churches of Christ and also quite a few foreign-

nrc ruifT A n T i c T i f

Sgt. and Mrs. Murphy of Norfolk, Va.,Stephen Mayfield and R ich ar d Meyer ofth e U S A F a n d also V e lm a H e ld whoteaches in the Air For ce s Depende ntSchools. Also t h e 5 C h u r c h of C h r i s t missionary families now in th e Tokyo areawere represented.There was a church building andkindergarden loca ted h ere for some yearsb ef or e t he war. A f t e r t h e w a r t h e h o u s ein which the Sam Saunders (a nd for th epast 10 year th e Sta nley Buttrays) livedwas erected on one side of th e l o t b u tthere was still room for a church buildingi n th e f utu re .During 1960 S tan But tr ay began Sunday School and worship service s in hisformer garage which had been f loor ed andclosed in to make a little chapel. Evangeli st ic meet ings were held in November andagain i n F eb ru ar y.

ically th e only sports entered into was swimming. Some instructive an d interesting di scussions were carried on in th e evenings.Though the night was already far spent,t h e r e was a s e r m o n a ft er th at.On th e final night a lo t of clean funwas had-araund a .camp-fire. As is usualamong Koreans on such an occasion everyon e had to either sing, make a speech orperform. When this was finished at wa salready late. In spite of this three youngpeopl e wer e asked to give their testimonyand a sermon followed t h a t .When the camp ended everyone wa stired both physi ca ll y and mentally. Butth e great benefits and' blessings receiveda t th e camp compensated fo r these ando t h e r s a c r i f i c e s .

Andrew P a t t o n

Stanley , Mabel an d David Buttray leftTokyo b y airp lan e fo r a year of fur loughin th e United States on July 29. Theira dd re ss w hile i n t h e homeland wil l b eRoute 1 Meadville, Pennsylvani a. Thosewho would l ike for them t o v is it a nd presentou r work in Japan shou ld g et in contactwith them as soon as possible.

View of the new church bu ild ing fromt h e s ou th we st c or ne r.

This spring an opportunity suddenlyopened to purchased Q. S. Army dependen t dweUings which had _to bejnoved inconnection with phas ing ou t one ^ thebases . S ince th e cost of building mater ia l sis very hi gh in Jap an these days th e priceof 722. for the house cons ti tuted qu ite asaving in co st of m at eri als . So th e housewas bought, torn down, trucked to the lo tand then t h e ma te ria ls w er e r ef orme d in toa very modern, aesthetically pleasing andmodestly sized and priced church house.As yet there is no congregation tospeak of , so we have th e fold before th eflock; but our prayer and con fi dence isthat God will use this tool to His gloryand that soon a thriving congregation oftruly converted' people will be assembledh e r e .As soon as th e new bui ld ing was completed an evangelistic meeting was begun,running from July 12-19. The attendancevaried bu t averaged nearly 20. A youngp eopl e's c ho ir from one of the nearbychurches came several n ight s and present-(Continued on Page 2)


15/33

TOKYO CHRISTIAN

THE TOKYO CHRISTIANPublished quarterly by th e Missionariesof the Church of Christ Cunningham Mission. Tokyo, Japan, for th e informationand inspirat ion of every Chris tian whoseheart is open to th e call of Christ, an d whois willing to help in t he sup reme task ofcarrying ou t th e Great Commission of

Christ: Matthew 28:19, 20.Entered as seco nd class m atter in th eKnoxvil le , Tenn. , Post office under th e act

of Mar ch 3 , 1879.Two-Year Subscripton 50 centsSubscripton and Flaming Torch 1.00

MISSION STAFFMr. and Mrs. St anley Buttr ay , 5752-Chome, Kamiochiai, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo,Japan. Forwarding agent: Mrs. Homer Anderson, R. D. 1, Meadville, Pa .Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Patton, 27 Sakura-yama, Nakano-Ku, Tokyo, Japan . Forwardin g agent: Mr. or Mrs. Ray Armstrong, Rt .

3,Box-310v Piqttar-Ohio:Mr. and Mrs. Harold Sims, 1-52 AraiMachi, Nagano-Ku, Tokyo, Japan. Forwarding agent: First Chris tian Church, TokyoMission, Box 262, Charlottesville, Va.Packages for Japan should be sen t d ir ec tby parcel post to one of th e missionaries

whose addresses are shown above. Consultyour local post office concerning mailingrules and limitations of size and weigh ts .If you change your address please notifyH. L. Hamilton, Kimberlin Heights, Tennessee, giving both your old and your newaddress. If you make an offering of 1.00or more you are entit led to receive thispaper if you so request. Churches or groupsmaking an offering of 10.00 or more mayrequest a bundle of 10 copies for d is tr ibut ion

Motosu CampFo r the past few years th e churchesin Tokyo have held summer camps but they

have b ee n mor e or less on a small scale.Ths s umme r a n effo rt was made to uni tethe churches as much as possible in onecamp program. Five or si x church groupsparticipated in the camp thi s year and weare convinced th e venture was a success.The camp site is located at th e footof Mt. Fuji, about 100 miles west ofTokyo. In ou r opinion, th e site is one ofth e most scenic in Japan. The groundsare surrounded by mountains on threesides and face toward beautiful LakeMotosu. Since the place is high in elevationi t gives th e Tokyoite a refreshing changefrom th e humid wea th er i n t he metropolis.The camp also has an a tt ra ct ion for th eper son o f p ioneer spirit. Fuel is gatheredfrom the surrounding mountainside by thecampers. Light is provided at night bycandles and flashlights brought by th ecampers, there is no electricity. There a recabins and beds but th e mattresses a re th eold-fashioned ticks f il le d w it h s tr aw . Shutters serve as both windows and vent il a to rs .The camp adapts itself wel l t o a variedrecreationed program. There is boating andswimming i n wat er c lean enough to drink.

Everyone must swim since there is no othermeans of taking a bath. There may bebaseball, volleyball, table tennis, badminton, and camp fires at night. In J apan thenon-Chris t ian often thinks of the Chris t ianas a sour-faced, austere person, with l it tleenjoyment of life. The experience at camphelps to dispel this mistaken idea.

The campers wer e d iv id ed into fourgroups and each group took it s turn atpreparing meals, serving, and cleaning upafter meals. The camp day began withone group preparing breakfast while th erest spent an hour together in prayer anddevotions at th e lakeside. The morningstudy hour consist ed of two hours ofclasses, two classes being conducted simultaneously each hour, a nd a chape l hour.The camp leaders alternated in speakingat chapel and A1 Hammond spoke eachevening at Vpi^i^s Since the Japanese areas a rule deficient in general Biblical knowl ed ge , two c la ss es on Biblical Introduction,one on th e Old Tes t amen t and the o the ron th e New, were taught. The two otherclasses s tu die d wer e the conversions inActs and the Book of Hebrews.

The dates for th e camp were August14-21. Each camper was left free to chooseth e number of days he attended camp according to his convenience. On the firstda y of camp about 48 were registered. Atotal of 58 perhaps wer e present duringthe week. A few, because of responsibilitesat home, left camp at mid-week, bu t th egreater part remained unti l Friday or Sa turday. A small g roup remained until Sunday a ft ernoon, when camp was brokenup

No conversions were made during th ecamp week, but other benef it s compensated fo r this, making th e camp a worthwhile under taking. Over half of the camper s were non-Christians, and we are su rethat they came home with a fa r betterunderstanding of what th e Christian faithand service is than when they arrived atcamp. They had' th e great advantage ofhearing Christian principles expounded andthen o f s ee ing them enacted in th e livesof th e Christians present in the camp. Theycould unders tand that dedicat ion to Chris tan d a c lean, wholesome en joyment o f lifego hand and hand. The Christ ians comingfrom various churches, developed a closefriendship with other Christians, an d go ta better view of th e unity and solidaritythey enjoy with others in Christ. Butwhethe r saint or sinner, preacher, missionary, or child al l were ins truc ted and insp ired at the camp. A meeting of the leaderswill be held soon to discuss th e w ea k a ndstrong points of the camp and to la y ou tinitial plans fo r another camp at th esame sp ot n ex t year.

Andrew Pa t ton

English Church ServicesRecently a spontaneous movement has

taken p lace among th e Tokyo missionariesand their f ri en d s s ta ti o ned here to meettogether early on Sunday mornings fo r aworship service in English. The men long

Page 2fo r an audience to whom they ca n preachfreely in their own tongue without havingto grope for words and stumble in Japaneseand still no t sa y what is on their hearts.The o thers, who seldom are privileged tohear a sermon in English, make an a ttent iv e a u di en c e.

These services were begun in August.The audience is made up of missionaryfamilies an d fr iends connected w ith th earmed forces an d business people stat ionedin th is area. Some of these familes travel25 miles to get to th e services. Some ofour gue sts h av e been: Stephen Mayfield(whose par en ts a re missionaries to Canadaand Europe): R ic har d Neye r, S teph en sfriend, both of Fuchu Air Base; Mr. an dMrs. Helm (connected with Japan AirLiner) who are from th e Madisonvillechurch in Cincinnati; Velma W ier fromSal em, Oregon ( teacher at the TachikawaAir Base); and Velma Held who teachesat the Washington Heights Armed For ce sschool,-and-Jarme]^-from Hampton, Iowa. ^Also Leona rd Jo hn son fro m San Josespent the Lord s Days with us as manyas possible while here on business. Mr . an dMrs. G. C. Andrews an d their family fromth e Atsugi Air Base visited us w hen thetemperature was about 100 degrees in th eshade. Because of th e great distance theyha d to travel, they said they would try tocome back regularly when i t became cooler,I sa b el a nd Jane t Dittemore was w ith us forthe first service as they had just comeback by ship from Hong Kong. With themwas th e dean o f women o f the Canad ianAcademy in Kobe, Miss Officer. The peakattendance so fa r has been 32.

Bill Walker has been preaching tothis Sunday morning congregation. Themeeting is being held at th e Showadorichurch building which was recently dedicated . Th e English services are at 9 everySunday morn ing . At 10 A. M. the missionaries en d their service and dash off tohold t he ir Japanese services at 10:30 inthe different areas in Tokyo. We areanxious to see what this group will dofor th e Lord .

Andrew Pa t t on

SHOWA DOR I CHURCH(Cont inued from Page 1)ed speci al messages in s ong. A lso MissShimizu from th e neighboring Shimo-ochiaiC hu rch o f Chr is t l ed a children s meetinge ve ry night, before the adult service.Preaching was done by Mr. Cho fromMikawashima church, Mr. Kobayashi fromFujimidai church and Harold Sims.

The William . Walker family willlive in Butt ray s house during th eir y earof absence a nd he lp in this new work.Japanese leadership is in th e handsof Mr. Kobayashi who moved into th e newbuilding with his wife and 2 small boyson Aug. 21. He was formerly associated

with missionary Bob West in Okayamap re fe cture and has b een p rea ch ing fo r anindependent interdenominational churchfo r several years .


16/33

Page 3

Okayama OmoideThe f ir st word means hill-mountain ,and is the name of a prefecture in centralJapan about 100 miles south of Osaka, Thesecond wor d means t ho ug ht s going outor recollec tions. I just want to record afew paragraphs of outstanding impressions

while th e memories ar e esh in my mindof a recent 10 day trip into th e countryvillages of Okayama for a series of specialevangelistic meetings.

During the past 5 years a solid andsteadily growing evangelistic work has beenestablished in that area through the devotedefforts and g reat prayers and fai th of Boband Aud rey West, ou r fellow-missionariesfrom San Jose, Calif., and Mr. and Mrs.Nakamura, a Japanese couple who graduated from Tokyo Bible Seminary in March1955. We are very thankful to God fo rwha t h as been accomplished the re , and alsofor thi s rare opportunity to vis it and work-among the^ura l folks,-andnmost-of allforthe thr il l of preach ing to large crowds ofbetween 100 and 250 people who know veryl i t t le about Chris t .The series of radio programs on theGospel of John, with accompanying correspondence course, p repa red by Isabel Dit-t emore and featuring he r trio of musiciansis now being broadcast on a station thatreaches this part of the country; so, in acombined attempt to create listeners to theradio program and generate i nt er es t i n thegood news of eternal life, the trio and Iwere pic tured on thousands of posters andhand-bills and held meetings in town-hallsand school auditoriums in most of the townsand villages in a 2 county a rea .

Some of th e things that linger in th em em o ry w ere1. On a beautiful sun-breezy afternoon,a party of 4 leave a l i tt le Japanese ca r byth e side of the dirt road and descendsleeply to th e banks of a r iver about 30feet below. Two of them change clothes inth e shade of a bush as 5 o th er s a rr iv eby bicycle f rom the nearby town. Then thepreacher leads the group in a song andprayer and precedes a young man in histwenties into th e midst of th e cool, clearstream that waters the paddy f ie lds of thenarrow valley. The water~ls~3nst- aboutwaist deep in some of the holes. As thebur ia l into Chr is t t ak es p lac e there is nosound but t he water tumbling over big rocksa few yards up stream.This young man is a road maintain-ance worker, and has a steady year-roundjob filling holes in a 3 mile stretch ofwell- traveled road. One day a passing ca rthrew out a copy of the Gospel of Johnand he picked it up. Some months latera missionary moved into town. The firstvisitor at th e missionary home was thisyoung man asking for a Bible Class on theBook of John. After five years of questions,doubts, and attending meetings he finallydecided to put on Christ.2. A Country movie house. The floorslopes down toward the stage in large yard-wide steps of concrete cushioned with about1 inch of fine dust. No benches, but thinstraw mats are spread out for peop le tosit on . The walls are of straw and mud.

and full of th e r emnant s o f h un dr ed s ofmovie posters partly torn off. The ceiling ofrough-hewn timbers supporting the roofwas decorated with hundreds of intricatelyworked cobwebs and lighted w ith about6 one-hundred watt bulbs. I will alwaysremember i t as f il led with 250 to 300 ordina ry f arming folksmost of whom knewvery l it tle about Jesus Chr is t. It was thelargest Japanese crowd I have spoken to.3. An afternoon in th e home ofan d Mrs. Abe. He is a former Jr. HighSchool teacher and head of social andwel fa re work in th e area. N ow his timeis given to church first, and then teaching Engl ish and editing a magazine ofJapanese haiku poems. They keep about10 kinds of birds in cages all over theirhouse, so the atmosphere is always musicaland pleasant. The conversion of thi s influential man and his wife^ stirred theentire community several yea ago.4. Bob and Audrey West-^ften lonelyand always tired because of daily meetingsand more op -portunities than they can fill. They lacksome in Japanese language ability, but areloved an d respected deeply by al l th e people. I t was an inspiration to hear BobWest pray^beautiful wording, lifting upholy hands and all in English. TheJapanese didn' t understand much that wassaid except the name Jesus Christ and theword Father, bu t they got the feeling, andhe ha d been used of th e Word to teachothers to be m en and women of prayer.5. A husky, loud-voiced country boyfull of zeal and love fo r the Lord . Hidesa bicycle 1 hour down-hill and 2 hours backhome before and after every service at th eHayashino church. Some t imes he gets alittle Buddhism, national pride, Bushido(code of the warrior) etc. mixed in withhis Christian testimony, bu t he is willingto learn an d anxious to tell others.6. The door-bell rings at 8:3 0 AM Sunday. A Jr . High School teacher from atown iy2 hours dis tant by train is therewith a girl from his school. He himselfis not a Christian, but he b rought t hi sgirl to the missionary's home because shehas a Bible and has been s t u d ^g it an dwants to know more. Sh e is immersed before that day ends.wife patiently working and putting downroots in th e community and gaining respect. Their preparation for the meetingswas excellent, and their common-touchgoo-d to see.8. A severely crippled girl about 3feet tall who barely propels herself alongon bent who deformed legs. Her face justshines with pure and simple joy especiallywhen she can join in singing around th eorgan after church.9. After th e meeting closed at 10 PMthe missionary offered to take a girl andher mother home in the ca r since they hadso fa r to walk. We rode along a steadilynarrowing, ascending and deterioratingroad fo r about 40 minutes before we go tus near the ir home as possible. They hadwalked 2 hours to th e meeting.10. A post-office emp loyee who gavea wonderful talk and prayer at the Lord' sSupper using a well-worn and loved Bible.

0

TOKYO CHRISTIAN

His wife and some re la ti ves have been wonthrough his tes timony.11. A rather unkept middle-agedman with a shrivelled right hand. I metthis fel low on th e first night of th e meetings and thought he was a little peculiar.He ins is ted I listen to him pray to se ehow good he was. Later I found that he wasindeed very, much of a problem-child. Iwondered if I would have th e patience todeal with his daily phone-calls and spoiledchild ways as th e Wests do. But on th e lastday I was there we went to visit th emayor. He told me that this man used tobe th e terror of th e valley. Nearly alwaysdrunk, he carried a knife and would rob,attack, fight, use terrible language, steal etc.He said that th e change that had takenplace in that man was posit ively a miracleand tha t if Mr. West did nothing else bu tsave (he used th is word, although no t aChristian) that m an i t would have beena great contribution to th e community anda credit to our religion.12. One jiice morning we decided toclimb the mounta in in back of West'shouse. After 40 minutes of hard climbingwe l ooked down on a tranquil scene thatwas worth many time the efforts of th eclimb an d r ea l food for the soul. A sceneuntouched by the war or much else of the20th century . The preponderance of th efarm houses were straw-roofed. The fieldswere cu t in a satisfying neat pat tern to usea ll lan d and water to the best advantage.Great old t rees thr ived along river.

Most of th e 2 or 3 thousand souls downin that val ley a re without Christ and carenot. But God is at work and perhaps because he looks down from far above He ismore patient an d loving than we are.

by Haro ld SimsNew Preacher tNakano

The Nakano church has called YukioItagaki as their new minister. He and hiswife an d little boy moved into th e p ars onage early in September to begin their ministry. Mr. Itagaki gra-duated from th eTokyo Bib le Seminary in 1956 and wasengaged fo r 3 years in pioneer evangelistin Chiba prefecture for 3 years. Theirmeetings were held in a kindergardenwhere Mrsr Itagaki was teaching7-I>ut-shelost her job there in 1960 and he had totake a jo b w ith an insurance company tosupport the family. So it is a great joy tothem to get back into th e active ministry,an d I believe i t will be good in every wayfor th e Nakano church to have t hem her e.For 6 weeks this summer th e preacherfrom th e Church of Christ on Tanegashima(an island of f Kagoshima prefecture inextreme south Japan) came to Tokyo withhis family to stu dy in a special summerses sion of th e Tamagawa University, ofwhich he is a regular correspondencestudents . Since th e Nakano parsonage wasempty they s^ed there and were a bihelp in the churchespecially during theDaily Vacation Bible School which washeld the week of Aug. 21-26.Fo r 3 days before the Itagakis movedto Nakano church Harold Sims and ayoung man from th e church painted th ewalls of th e parsonage.


17/33

TOKYO CHRISTIAN

Part of the audience at the dedication of the new church building on Showa Don(next door to Buttrays) on Sunday after July 16, 1961. The 2 Japanese signs areadvertising the dedication service and the week of evangelistic meetings following.Nakano Evangelisticmeeting

An evangelistic meet ing was held atNakano church from June 4 11 immediatelyfollowing the Tokyo Christian Crusadewhich gave much public ity to Chris tianitythrough the city, We were hoping to drawsome of th e people who made decisionsat th e American-style crusade .Miss Lydia Shigenobu from the RadioMission in Kobe came to lead th e musicand a chi ldren's meeting every night priorto the regular evangelistic service. Stephenlijima was the evangelist.The children's meetings (not verycommon in Japan) were very successful,with attendance increasing nightly to ahigh of 46 and doubling ou r regular SundaySchool t t end nceAttendance at the meeting was not sogood as we hope after using 8000 handbills and other means of advert isement.T he h ig h was 25 and th e low 13. But somevery good prospects were found.

The Center Of Japonby Harold SimsYou leave th e Tokyo Cent ra l S ta tionat seven PM on th e Buzzard , fastest trainin the la nd . Read th e magazine an d thengo to sleep. The nex t morning you se e Hiroshima glide by as you ea t breakfast in th ediner, and before lunch you have passedth ro ug h th e u nd er sea tunnel and are onthe island of Kyushu, In th e evening, after23 hours of h ard and f as t r id ing , you ge toff at the end of th e line in Kagoshima.Then you take a ferry fo r a scenic 50 minute trip across th e bay,Mt. Sakurajima, a tower ing gray vol

cano dominates the s cene . L ik e some ol dmen, it sometimes smokes quiet ly and againit snorts, burps or bellows so loud th ewhole neighborhood is disturbed^window-panes rat t le fo r 25 m ile s a nd more. Fromthe ferry pi er you change to a bus fo ranother 50 minut es t o the I n f ro n t of th eMission stop, and ar e greeted by MarkMaxey, th e only missionary and white manliving among the numerous people, townsand villages of th e eastern half of Japan'ssouthernmost prefecture. To compensatefor what some might imagine wou ld beboredom or loneliness this wonderful famil y (1 ) ha s a constant stream of visitorswho always come back for more o f th eirhospitality and (2) they persist in callingthis the center of Japan.

A part of their missionary activity iso pera tio n o f th e Kyushu Chris tian Center.(A s you would imagine th e name does notrefer to geography, but something l ike themodern word ner ve cen te r o r the oldertelephone central ) One of th e yearlyactivities at t he C en te r is a 2 week intens ive B ib le S tudy cou rse during th e earlypart of January whe n f arme rs and otherpeople have a lo t of time off. The purposeis to train th e ordinary Chris tian for localchurch leadersh ip and service.

This year I taught a class in Romansfor 2 hours every night fo r 10 nights. Only4 people attended the full number of nightsan d received certificates, but with delegations from three of th e nearby churchesa total of 38 different people attended.Two of th ose w ho r ec ei ve d c er ti fi ca te swere a fine young farming couple whocame up from a s mall i sla nd s ou th o f th emainland for th e 2 weeks of s tudy . Theyar e seriously consider ing going into th eministry at great personal sacrifice. An

other one who came eve ry n ight was anold school teacher whose hea ri ng a id sometimes got ou t of order and could be heardbeeping and squawking all over the room,bu t he was a good l is tener. Some of theleaders of th e local Kanoya church attended as many n ights as they could and werevery responsive.

For 2 day s whi le I was t he re t he y hadthe bi-monthly meeting of th e ministersan d missionaries i n t he p re fe ctur ea at th ecenter, an d i t was good to have the fellowship with these 5 young Japanese preache rswho ar e near th e same age an d very goodfriends, and also Paul Prat t who is themissionary on th e o th er side of the prefecture, T her e is a fine unity among themand t he y ar e busy at each mee ti ng mak ingdecisions and plans for the active programof evangel ism, camps, monthly magazinean d o th er t hi ng s whi ch they are -doing ina constructive way

One day I was asked to make a briefspeech to th e local Rotary Club, of whichMark with hi s Center of Japan propaganda is a very welcome member, A WestGerman youth was there on his way walkin g around the world. He reported he hadbeen away f rom home 3 yea rs an d in 23different countries , and he is planning totake 3 more years to get back home. Ofcou rse h e spent the night with Maxeys,

One night

sims harold lois 1961 japan

Documents